Today if Friday my Friends! I hope you all have great weekend plans with sunshine to accomodate. Today you are in for a very special treat because Tribute Books have given me another opportunity to review a Hauntingly Beautiful Book: Knee Deep by Jolene Perry

Summary:

Shawn is the guy Ronnie Bird promised her life to at the age of fourteen. He's her soul mate. He's more uptight every day, but it's not his fault. His family life is stressful, and she's adding to it. She just needs to be more understanding, and he'll start to be the boy she fell in love with. She won’t give up on someone she’s loved for so long.

Luke is her best friend, and the guy she hangs with to watch girlie movies in her large blanketopias. He's the guy she can confide in before she even goes to her girlfriends, and the guy who she's playing opposite in Romeo and Juliet. Now her chest flutters every time he gets too close. This is new. Is Ronnie falling for him? Or is Juliet? The lines are getting blurry, but leaving one guy for another is not something that a girl like Ronnie does.

Shawn’s outbursts are starting to give her bruises, and Luke’s heart breaks as Ronnie remains torn. While her thoughts and feelings swirl around the lines between friendship and forever, she’s about to lose them both.

Review:

This book was great in so many ways, that it is hard for me to begin in a certain place. Here goes nothing. First of all, you need to read this book. If you have ever been a mother, daughter, lover, friend, father, son, sister, or brother, this book is for you. The author, Jolene Perry, has wrote such a captivating and horrifying novel, that people, young and old, should read it. This novel starts at a place that we have all been: Young Love. The wistful yearnings and sneaking out to go meet ‘the forever’ boy. The time in your life where worries are behind you and what to wear to school should be the biggest worry, only this is not so for high school seniors Ronnie and Shawn. Perry lures us right into Ronnie’s story and the dark path where she is headed. The book starts with this one sentence, “Guilt pricks at my chest as I lie in bed and listen for Shawn’s motorcycle.” This opening sentence is a window into Ronnie’s world and tells me that she lives her life to make Shawn, her “forever”, happy. This opening sentence helped prepare me to make the journey with Ronnie as she struggles to do what is right and what she feels is right for the boy she loves. Thrown into the mix is Luke, the boy that everyone knows she should be with, everyone but her. Buckle up and prepare yourself for one of the most haunting and real books that you will read.

One of the things that make the novel so evocative is the main characters. There is Shawn. The boy that people are drawn to for some reason or another. The boy down the block who works at his father’s store. What you don’t see is the angry person behind the smile. The boy who holds on too hard and let’s his anger take over. The boy who hurts the one he loves. The attractive boy that has no chance in life but has a girl willing to give him chances he doesn’t deserve.

There is Ronnie. A character that we all know. She is the sweet girl next door. The best friend with whom you share everything with. What you don’t see is her heart that is so pure it could be her fallback. The girl with the wrong guy. The girl who wants to fix Shawn’s problems because she loves him. The girl who is a heroine in her own way. A brave soul looking out for everyone but herself. Ronnie is a girl whose bravery will stick in my mind. What makes this so chilling is that you DO know her and what happens to her makes you realize that it can happen to anyone.

And then there is Luke. The beautiful boy that is proclaimed as a ‘womanizer’, only he is far from that. The guy everyone wants to be with and really is too good to be true (he made me grin like a teenage girl). Everyone knows this besides the girl he loves. The girl he wants to be with. The girl he is in love with. The girl who is in love with a guy that pushes all the wrong buttons. Luke’s love for Ronnie is one of the rawest feelings that I have read. He loves Ronnie so much that it kills him to see what is happening, but honors her wishes and tells no one. It broke my heart to feel the emotions he was feeling. The struggle between his love and making it right.

As the story develops, it begins to take place around the classic tragedy, Romeo and Juliet. The fact the Perry sets this real world tragedy into the most popular tragedy of all time had me scared. We all know how tragic Romeo and Juliet is and I was worried Perry was foreshadowing the ending of Ronnie’s story. The beautiful language of the play mixed in with Ronnie’s life was poetic and beautiful, and quite honestly, had me preparing for a disaster. As Shawn becomes more violent, Ronnie’s true bravery comes forth. From telling Shawn “No,” to telling her Dad what was going on, and confessing her love for Luke after everything happened, Ronnie is a very fearless character that young women should follow.

Getting right down to it, this is a very raw novel. It is about a girl in an abusive relationship, both physical and mental. We have to face the facts that what made Ronnie so strong was that she was able to talk about what was happening to her to her Father and best Friend. It’s hard to think about that most girls her age would be too scared to talk to anyone. This is what haunts me. Where Ronnie had a happy ending, it is not the same for some. She got out before it was too late. It was because she faced her fear and got help. Ronnie herself said “It’s like I’m suddenly in someone else’s life” (page 50). She became distant, hid the bruises, and put on a fake smile. What made her so sturdy was that she always said no to Shawn when it came to sex and didn’t drop out of the things she loved. That small amount of sanity helped her realize that she needed out. She never got in over knee deep. Please share this novel with people you know. It will help give some the courage they need, or open their eyes to signs that might go unnoticed. It will help everyone to realize that they should never go in too deep for they might not be able to get out.

Jolene Perry wrote a book about love, sorrow, hurt, pain, strength, joy, and love again. There is a happy ending waiting for all of us, we just have to be sure to walk in the tide before we splash in.

If you want to read on(which I strongly suggest you do), check out the links below. In the meantime, get to know the author. Have a great weekend friends!

Author Bio:

Jolene grew up in Wasilla, Alaska. She graduated from Southern Utah University with a degree in political science and French, which she used to teach math to middle schoolers. After living in Washington, Utah and Las Vegas, she now resides in Alaska with her husband, and two children. Aside from writing, Jolene sews, plays the guitar, sings when forced, and spends as much time outside as possible. She is also the author of Night Sky and The Next Door Boys.

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JANUARY 15:

Hello Friends.

As mentioned yesterday, I am going to put my list on hold this week and treat to you to my first Book review here on Morning Start with Em. I would like to thank Tribute books for giving me the opportunity to do this and hope you all enjoy my review as much as I like reading it.

Until Next Time: The Angel Chronicles Book One by Amy Lignor

Overview

How does a girl choose between the one who steals her heart and the one who owns her soul?

Matt and Emily were created for a specific job. Raised and trained as the ultimate angel/warrior team, they are sent down to save, defend, judge and forgive, depending on the 'life' they've been assigned. What they don't realize is that the power of human emotions, such as love, anger, passion and fear can take over even the best of souls, causing them to make mistakes and follow paths that lead to confusion and heartache.

When the reason for their training is finally revealed, the angel/warrior team find themselves thrust into a world they know nothing about. Matt takes over the life of Daniel, a young man with a great deal of baggage. Emily becomes Liz, a girl living in a remote village who relies on nothing more than her own strength to survive. A violent storm erupts one night, and framed in the window of Liz's establishment is a frightening face. Let in by the soul of a Good Samaritan, the two visitors bring with them a past full of secrets that could literally change an angel's path and a warrior's plans.

From murder to redemption, this angel/warrior team must find a way to keep the faith they have in each other in a world that's ripping them apart.

Not all Angels have Wings- A book review by Em

Until Next Time by Amy Lignor wrote a refreshing new twist in the Angel novel world. This novel is unlike any Angel novel I have read. There are so many complex relationships, that it seemed just a bit scattered. A puzzle that was just beginning. The third person narration was a little off-putting at first, but, like poetry, once you get used to the linguistics there is no stopping the flow of the language.

The most unexpected dynamics of this novel were the lessons that the characters learned. They journey through a world of love, esteem, intelligence, fear, hurt, death, and finding the true meaning of strength. It was much more of an emotional novel than I thought it would be when I first met Matt and Emily, warrior and angel. The love triangle that happens searches unknown corners for the true meaning of love. Who really is our soul mate? What decision is the right choice? Will we ever regret the choices we make? These are all questions that people ask themselves each day and it is no different in this novel. The fact that Amy takes us through the answers to these questions through the characters shows me just how deep each character is.

Emily is a strong minded, intelligent angel with love surrounding her. Matt is a warrior though and though, always questioning but always protecting. Their journey from heaven to earth was hard to follow at first, but again, once you found the flow of things, the language was both romantic and exciting. Each world was always demarcated with something else to add in so we get to explore heaven and earth with the characters. It was a dance of worlds and that is what intrigued me. The emotion draws the reader in. The part that really got to me was when Emily questions what happens when an angel loses her faith. This is such a beautiful yet heartbreaking question that you should want to read it from that one line.

Getting right down to it, I love the characters in this novel. Matt and Emily are two very memorable characters. The connection that they have is one that most people strive to find. Angel and Warrior. Two characters so in love and meant to be together that you almost envy them. The scenes that Amy writes of Matt and Emily were incredibly beautiful and could easily take someone’s breath away. The deepness of this novel is cleverly broken up by the light sparring of the Saints and the earthly friend, Faith.

Overall, I would recommend this novel to anyone who loves beautiful words wrote into a story of love, angels, warriors, and saving the world. If things start to get confusing, do yourself a favor and keep reading.In the end, the puzzle pieces will all be put in place and you definitely won’t regret seeing the puzzle take shape. As Amy wrote, “Some things are better left unknown.” (pg. 75) I believe The Angel Chronicles is going to be an epic series that might become the next phenomenon.

“Miracles don’t have to be an act of God. Most of the time miracles are simply a godly act.” (page 39)

Until Next Time, my friends! In the meantime, read below for some information on the fantastic author, Amy Lignor!

About the Author

Amy Lignor began her career at Grey House Publishing in northwest Connecticut where she was the Editor-in-Chief of numerous educational and business directories.

Now she is a published author of several works of fiction. The Billy the Kid historical The Heart of a Legend; the thriller, Mind Made; and the adventure novel, Tallent & Lowery 13.

She is also the owner of The Write Companion, a company that offers help and support to writers through a full range of editorial services from proofreading and copyediting to ghostwriting and research. As the daughter of a research librarian, she is also an active book reviewer.

Currently, she lives with her daughter, mother and a rambunctious German Shepherd named Reuben, in the beautiful state of New Mexico.